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Policy Document

Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy

Policy Document
Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy

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Related indicators

Indicator Specification Landscape fragmentation pressure and trends in Europe This indicator measures landscape fragmentation due to transport infrastructure and sealed areas. Unlike the previous indicator on fragmentation status, this updated version uses the TeleAtlas® Multinet data set to ensure the statistical comparability of the time series. While the Open Street Map data set is a valuable source of the street network available for the general public, there are still inconsistencies in this data set for some regions of Europe, which render it secondary to the TeleAtlas data set. As in the previous version, this indicator is based on the effective mesh size method  (Jaeger, 2000) . For some species, the effective mesh size (meff) can be interpreted as the area that is accessible when beginning to move from a randomly chosen point inside a landscape without encountering anthropogenic barriers such as transport routes or built-up areas. However, it should be stressed that for many species that can fly, or are effective dispersers in others ways, man-made structures may not act as barriers.  The combination of all barriers in a landscape is referred to as the fragmentation geometry (FG) hereafter. The meff value expresses the probability that any two points chosen randomly in an area are connected. Hence, meff is a measure of landscape connectivity, i.e. the degree to which movements between different parts of the landscape are possible. The larger the meff, the more connected the landscape. The indicator addresses the structural connectivity of the landscape and does not tackle functional, species-specific connectivity. The effective mesh density (seff) is a measure of landscape fragmentation, i.e. the degree to which movement between different parts of the landscape is interrupted by fragmentation geometry. It gives the effective number of meshes (or landscape patches) per 1 000 km 2 , in other words the density of the meshes. The seff value is 1 000 km 2 /meff, hence the number of meshes per 1 000 km 2 . The more barriers fragmenting the landscape, the higher the effective mesh density. The values of meff and seff are reported within the cells of a 1 km 2 regular grid. The value of meff is area-proportionally additive, hence it characterises the fragmentation of any region considered, independently of its size, and thus can be calculated for a combination of two or more regions. It has several advantages over other metrics: It addresses the entire landscape matrix instead of addressing individual patches. It is independent of the size of the reporting unit and its values can be compared among reporting units of differing sizes. It is suitable for comparing the fragmentation of regions with differing total areas and with differing proportions occupied by housing, industry and transportation structures. Its reliability has been confirmed on the basis of suitability criteria through a systematic comparison with other quantitative measures. The suitability of other metrics is limited, as they only partially meet the following criteria: intuitive interpretation; mathematical simplicity; modest data requirements; low sensitivity to small patches; detection of structural differences; mathematical homogeneity (i.e. intensive or extensive).
Indicator Specification Landscape fragmentation pressure from urban and transport infrastructure expansion This indicator is based on the Effective Mesh Size (Jaeger 2000) method .  For some species, the effective mesh size (meff) can be interpreted as the area that is accessible when beginning to move from a randomly chosen point inside a landscape without encountering man-made barriers such as transport routes or built-up areas. However, it should be stressed that for many species that can fly, or are effective dispersers in others ways, man-made structures may not act as barriers. The combination of all barriers in a landscape is called Fragmentation Geometry (FG) hereafter. The meff value expresses the probability that any two points chosen randomly in an area are connected. Hence, meff is a measure of landscape connectivity, i.e. the degree to which movements between different parts of the landscape are possible. The larger the meff, the more connected the landscape. The indicator addresses structural connectivity of the landscape and does not tackle functional, species specific connectivity. The Effective Mesh Density (seff) is a measure of landscape fragmentation, i.e. the degree to which movement between different parts of the landscape is interrupted by Fragmentation Geometry. It gives the effective number of meshes (or landscape patches) per 1 000 km 2 , in other words, the density of the meshes. The seff value is calculated as 1 000 km 2 /meff, hence, the number of meshes per 1 000 km 2 . The more barriers fragmenting the landscape, the higher the effective mesh density. meff and seff are reported within the cells of a 1 km 2 regular grid. meff is area-proportionally additive, hence it characterises the fragmentation of any region considered, independently of its size, and thus can be calculated for a combination of two or more regions. The meff has several advantages over other metrics: It addresses the entire landscape matrix instead of addressing individual patches. It is independent of the size of the reporting unit and its values can be compared among reporting units of differing sizes. It is suitable for comparing the fragmentation of regions with differing total areas and with differing proportions occupied by housing, industry and transportation structures. It's reliability has been confirmed on the basis of suitability criteria through a systematic comparison with other quantitative measures. The suitability of other metrics was limited as they only partially met the following criteria: Intuitive interpretation; Mathematical simplicity; Modest data requirements; Low sensitivity to small patches; Detection of structural differences; Mathematical homogeneity (i.e., intensive or extensive).

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/policy-documents/pan-european-biological-and-landscape or scan the QR code.

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